Elise Valere: Could you define precisely your function of artistic director?

Mimmo Paganelli: The artistic director is the person from the society (here, EMI Italia) who is in direct and permanent contact with the artist, not only when he makes the disk (its concept, the structure of the album, its registration in studio) but also since the moment he conceived it mentally. My work starts at this moment, I’m near him to devellop his ideas, to optimalise the procedures, the choice of the musicians, of the studio, etc... to find an idea for the cover or the titles’importance that must give the desire to discover the album. In summary, I’m in contact with the artist since the moment when he starts to think the album until the moment when it's completely achieved.

About one month after the moment when the artist finished his disk, it's published: at this point, my colleagues are in charge of the promotion radio, broadcast, of the marketing... the whole commercial part comes in to carry the distribution of the disk, but I’m always available, the artist consults me to talk about it. Sometimes, it arrives also that we are not entirely okay, then we discuss, always in a constructive manner, for example for the exit of a second single. The singer can ask me if it’s appropriate that he makes such or such TV broadcast or radio in relation with the exit of his work. Between two releases of album, the active phase of my function is finished, but in the same time, I don't remain inactive: I generally assist to the first concert of the tour to give my opinion.

In the case of Angelo, I was there to the first concert of "Altro ed Altrove " and after we spoke of the way to improve again his presentation , the scenography, the order of the songs, the musicians... My commentaries are always given in good faith, I always say what I think but it isn't a critique or a pressure on the interpreter to make rather a thing than another. The artists are old enough and vaccinated and honestly, at the end of the story, it’s very clear, they do what they want! This is the definition of my role, but all these things are variable according to the artist or the project, some are more autonomous than others; even if the interlocutors remain the same: the artist, the artistic director and the producer.

E.V.: When did you start your collaboration with Angelo?

M.P.: Since 1992, for the first album with Emi, "Si puo' fare". I like a lot to work with him because I appreciate the artist and I also appreciate the person. It's someone very smart, of course very cultivated but the culture doesn't serve so much without a brilliant synthesis mind... that’s phenomenal in this case... it's also a solar person - faraway from the picture a few too serious that people give him - a cordial human being who likes to joke. It’s, like all artists, a normal man with a lot of facets... on an artistical point of view, it would be interesting to show a little more his good mood... but according to me, it will happen...

E.V.: How to know which future will have the album?

M.P.: As I told it before, I’m the tie between the artist and the house of disk, if the artist's work has success, it means that my work was productive, if the artist is mistaken in his choices, I can tempt to correct it but what remains primordial, it’s the quality level of the disk. The success of an album good welcomed by the public is a beautiful reward but it first imports that all people who took part in its realization are convinced enough of its excellence to want to present it in the best possible way. Evidently, there is no specific recipe that permits to know in advance how the disk will be welcomed by the public. But the important thing is to know who is the target, if it's about the usual listeners. If the artist wants to look for a new public, he will want to make something innovative, different. It means to take some risks also but we are accomplices in this seek because it's important, a singer can not always make the same thing. An evolution is necessary even though it means to put sometimes in danger his image... if the styles’transition is too brutal, the artist risks to be misunderstood, he should come back then by different manner. But all this, it's a reflection that belongs to my functions as to have the sensitivity to anticipate the reaction of people, the singer himself, must only worry about to create, to give his best, to be able to express his talent. The artists are in this way like eternal children in the sense that they are lucky to make a work that allows them to play again: they have the marvelous possibility to be able to pass from a thing that makes smile, to a thing that makes cry, from a thing that makes dream to a thing that makes think. In the case of Angelo, it's especially true and our work of collaboration starts by a dialogue where we choose the path that seems the best. This road - about it, I’m very clear - that's him who invents it, my role is to bring some answers to his questions.

E.V.: Quality doesn't mean quantity and the inverse also...

M.P.: It's normal and better in this way! It's a mistake to think only about the quality... We can note that a lot of artists, among the biggest, became very popular not necessarily with the best songs. But this success allows the artist to make discover the other songs, maybe less directly accessible, and this concerns also Angelo. It’s clear that people always think to "Alla fiera dell'est", "Cogli la prima mela", and the "Pulce d'acqua", but it allowed him to let discover deeper songs also. And then the term "quality" is always very relative: there is some songs with capital S and other songs with a normal S, I also like those... but even an artist writes 2000 songs, the public will only keep 5 of them, 10 maximum after 30 years of carreer...

However, in this kind of artistic collaboration, we almost share the moments of gemellious way: an artist's failure is ours, his success also, it gives a reward... I feel like a trainer who sees his own team winning, it gives a deep emotion even though I'm seated on the bench... of course I also knew that and the opposite... however, in those moments, the artist and the artistic director are absolutely accomplices and linked.

E.V.: How to concile your personal tastes with your profession?

M.P.: It's a very rich function where I don't confine myself to only one type of activity or music, besides I also try to cultivate me in this sense... I have the privilege to be able to speak one day of a project rock, the following day of a soundtrack, another day of a melodies' singer... Every day is very different, the problematics are never identical and it delights me! It's a very stimulating thing, also because when suddenly emerges an idea, this idea would be magnificent for an artist but would not agree to another, there is always the possibility to exploit it... it's the most beautiful thing that I keep from my work. I'm lucky enought to enjoy the majority of the projects and artists I collaborate with but it would be also stupid to say that I like all musical kinds. It's clear that I have my own limits and it arrives - rarely - that an artist is less my cup of tea, but it doesn't impeach me to defend him with bitterness!

E.V.: How the popularity of Angelo Branduardi is disseminated geographically?

M.P.: The proportions vary according to the albums, sometimes an album sold as well as the precedent, will be more popular in another country. He is very appreciated in Germany, in Belgium and in France, but especially in Germany where he has a public very attentive to his career. But it'is in Italy that he always sold the most!

E.V.: What about the actual projects with Angelo?

M.P.: We didn't speak yet about the next disk. I don't speak of Futuro Antico, it's a parallel production but about a next pop disk. When it will be the moment, we will first speak about the content of the present "Altro ed Altrove". This disk is an "album-concept" with texts of various authors modified in a way that it recovers a superb consistency there, that doesn't mean that his next album will have the same theme although the topic is so rich! His precedent album clearly approached another kind of things with the speech on Holy Francis, it was made with more complicated texts and that it was necessary to study because the thematic was important.

Personally, I think - but maybe he will have a different opinion - that he could take the liberty to approach a third concept.. in an artist's career like his, it’s good to alternate the things, to surprise. For me, he could make 2 things: either a pop album filled of new texts that please to him or an album with other artists in guest, something in a kind... different... but maybe Angelo will come with a third idea? It will be well because he has credibility enought and the possibility to approach very different kinds like to pass from the pop to the classical music. These last 2 albums had a lot of success, two projects very wellworked, the second even more on a musical point of view. Contrary to the precedent, a very elaborate music to the service of simpler texts...

Now, it would be beautiful, a white page...

© Élise Valere